5 Ways To Improve Your Laptop's Performance

Small businesses invest hundreds or even thousands of dollars in shiny new commercial laptops fully expecting them to do their job for quite a while. But will they? Not without proper maintenance. The average laptop's life expectancy is about four years. However, companies often see drop offs in performance long before the equipment nears its end of life. Software starts to take longer to boot up or runs too slowly. Battery life gets shorter and shorter. Keys stick. You seem to have more viruses infecting your network. More often than not these things are happening because a company either does not have enough IT staff taking care of things (one in for mid-sized businesses do not have one) or the company isn’t properly caring for these investments on its own. If your company is in the latter group don’t feel too bad. You’re all busy. You can only spend so much money on computer upkeep. The equipment is probably doing well enough for your needs. Keep in mind though that drop offs in performance are often barely perceptible, until they’re painfully obvious. It’s a lot like those squeaking front car brakes that don’t seem like such a big deal until you wind up unable to stop the vehicle as it careens down a steep hill. The good news is if you have the time you really don’t have to hire your own IT staff to adequately protect your laptop and notebook investments. There are some things you can do on your own. Here are a few good tips for having an extended relationship with your business computers.

1. Don’t Overuse Those Charging Cables

Technology wonks are always debating whether it’s better to leave a computer on all the time or shut it off at the end of each business day. Those in favor of letting it run note that every time you start up a PC there’s a small surge of power that can shorten the computer’s lifespan. The thought is those surges put undesirable wear and tear on the components and that may indeed be true. Others believe you should shut it off at the end of each day and argue that the other approach burns more electricity (which adds to your operating costs) and leads to wear and tear on your battery and charging cable. The thinking here is that shutting it down daily allows computer performance to improve upon reboot.

2. Update Whenever Possible

Many consumers and business owners are reluctant to install software or firmware updates, not because it’s hard but because it can be scary. Most of us have the experience of updates slowing or stalling our systems costing lost time and productivity as well as tons of frustration and angst. Many business owners figure, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That’s really an outdated philosophy. The value of updating far outweighs the cost of those random and rare instances when patches cause more trouble than they’re worth. Updates protect against new security risks. They introduce additional and often productivity enhancing features in your software. They can improve battery depletion rates and performance which means increased efficiency and they often fix bugs in the software before they become real problems for you and your employees.

3. Keep It Clean

The last thing you want to do is stand over your employees’ desks telling them to keep food and drinks away from computers. If you’ve spent money on those things you have a right to insist they clean them. From wiping down the screen to removing dust from vents it is critical to keep dirt and dusty particles out of the computer as much as possible. Over time clogged vents can impair speed and impair the cooling mechanism. Overheating can damage a computer and shorten its lifespan so employees should also be advised to keep laptops and notebooks away from heat sources. Remind them not to leave computers sitting in cars for example. You might also consider providing workers with cooling pads for extra protection.

4. Uninstall Junk Software

New computers often come with trial and other software you do not need and will probably never use. But the bloatware is often running behind the scenes affecting computer performance and productivity. A few examples of things you probably don’t need: unnecessary toolbars from Yahoo!, Ask, Babylon, Skype, and even Google (if you’re in Explorer or Edge). By going to Settings/Apps & Features on your computer you can also scan the long list of software you have installed, left click on those you’re sure you don’t want or need and uninstall them.

5. Consider DaaS

At the end of the day you might not want to do it yourself. That would be smart because after a while, it does become tedious and can be a distraction you don’t need. This is where device as a service (DaaS) comes into play. DaaS providers assure you get complete hardware, support, analytics, and unified endpoint management solutions with more predictable IT spending. Offload the time consuming tasks of supporting, securing, and managing multi OS devices so you can focus on what drives your business forward. Reduce the complexity of purchasing with simple and flexible plans easily tailored to your specific business needs and budget.